


this home is home and all that i need

by shoelaces



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Basically the 7 years at Hogwarts through Josh's eyes, Climbing Class is endgame, F/F, F/M, Hogwarts AU, M/M, No-one dies, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-08
Updated: 2016-08-08
Packaged: 2018-08-07 11:50:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7713841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shoelaces/pseuds/shoelaces
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Josh goes to Hogwarts.</p><p>Seven long years of the gang growing up and getting their life together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	this home is home and all that i need

**Author's Note:**

> this is the first time i've ever written a slow burn romance because i have literally no patience at all. enjoy!

Josh can’t help but think, standing on Platform 9 at King’s Cross that this is a bizarre situation. He’d only just adjusted to the fact that an owl had delivered a letter to his house that said he was a wizard. It was a godsend to have his aunt, who was a witch, with him.  
“Just run straight through!” Glinda encourages. “It won’t hurt a bit, sweetie, and you have to hurry up!”  
“Okay.” Josh is just preparing to run through the wall (whose idea was this?) when he hears weeping behind him.  
“Mum!” A girl in a pink hat is crying. She looks about his age. Her nose is red and she is sniffling into her sleeve. For a second, something in her eyes looks exactly like Hannah. “Mum, I don’t want to go! I don’t know anyone!”  
Josh turns away from his aunt. “Are you okay?”  
She pouts. “Who are you?”  
“My name’s Josh.” He recognises the book poking out of the top of her bag from the bookshop earlier. The Tales of Beedle the Bard. “Are you going to Hogwarts?”  
Her eyes brighten. “Yes! I’m going to be in Ravenclaw. That’s the clever house.” She haughtily tries to stand up straight, raising her chin in an effort to make herself look taller. Her eyes are still red, but there’s something in her gaze that makes Josh think he doesn’t want to mess with her.  
“I don’t know anyone there either. I didn’t even know magic was real.”  
“I’ve been learning for years. My dad says I’m very talented.”  
“Excuse me?” A shy voice interrupts them. Josh turns to see a boy even shorter than him, wrapped in a coat far too big for him is edging over. His glasses are sliding off the tip of his nose. “Do you have any chocolate frog cards to trade?”  
“Ooh, I might have some!” Ashley starts to rifle through her bag. “Do you have a Dumbledore card yet?”  
The boy scrunches his nose up. “Yeah. I really want Merlin.”  
“Me too!” She blushes slightly. “If I find one, you can have it.”  
He beams. Josh feels a bit jealous, but he’s not sure why. His aunt starts to tug him away. “Josh, come on! You really have to get a move on!” She smiles at Ashley and the boy. “You two can come through with us. What’s your name, sweetie?”  
“Chris. It’s nice to meet you.”  
She practically melts. “Well, Chris and Ashley, will you look after my nephew on the train?”  
Ashley glows with pride. Chris smiles shyly. “Come on!” Ashley grabs Chris’ hand, and startled, Chris grabs Josh’s. Together, they run through the wall.

The other side is pandemonium. Children are running around and giggling, and Josh nearly trips over a cat. He lets go of Chris’ hand, but his still tingles slightly. Their attention is caught by shouting. A girl, who looks about 11, is sitting on the platform, weeping, with her books all over the floor. Two angry looking boys are moving in on her. They’re a lot older.  
“Oh no!” Ashley hisses. “We should find an adult.”  
Turns out they don’t need to. A boy, already wearing a cloak and hat, with a tiny blonde girl close on his heels come running to the action. “Leave her alone!” The boy goes straight up to the older boys and stares at them defiantly. “She didn’t do anything!” The girl on the floor keeps crying.  
“What’s it to you?” The older boy snarls. “How are you gonna stop us?”  
There is a pause. The boy looks hopeless for a moment. Then, the tiny blonde girl, who’d been quiet until that moment, frowned, and kicked him in the shin. Hard.  
“Jesus!” The guy howls. “You bitch!” The girl just glares. “You’re gonna pay for that later.” He and his friend stalk away. The boy and girl drop to the floor next to the crying girl. Josh leans forward to hear their exchange. “I’m Mike.” The boy announces. “This is my friend Sam.”  
The girl on the floor sniffles. “I’m Emily.”  
“Hello Emily!” Sam smiles. At that moment,. she glances up, and for a second, catches Josh’s eye. She grins at him. Josh smiles back. The two are helping Emily off the floor, and she’s stopped crying now, instead muttering under her breath. Josh can’t hear what she’s saying, but she looks worried. Sam and Mike pull her over, to Josh’s alarm, towards him.  
“Hello!” Sam greets. “Have you seen a girl with blonde plaits and a blue coat on? Her name is Jess, she’s Emily’s friend, and she can’t find her.”  
Ashley and Josh shake their heads, but Chris suddenly perks up. “I might have! Did she have a brown satchel?”  
“Yes!” Emily looks excited.  
“I saw her, I traded chocolate frog cards with her! She’s nice. I think she got on the train.”  
Emily pauses for a moment. Then, she throws her arms around Chris, and takes off, jumping onto the train. She pauses in the doorway, shouts “Thank you!” and disappears into the carriages, calling for Jess.  
“We should probably get on now.” Mike says. “The carriages are gonna fill up. My brother told me that someone had to sit on the roof once because there was no room.”  
“Don’t be silly!” Sam giggles, noticing Chris’ anxious expression. “We should probably get a move on though.”  
Josh pecked his aunt on the cheek and said goodbye., before following his new friends onto the train. Mike had taken charge of finding a carriage, poking his head through doors.  
“Hey!” A voice calls. Emily is poking her head through one of the doors. “You guys should come in here and meet Jess!”  
When they’ve all squeezed their way in, they are introduced to Jess, a very pretty girl with a beautiful owl resting on her knee. She smiles politely as they introduce themselves, but goes back to watching a football match on her phone as soon as they stop talking. There’s an awkward silence for a few moments, broken by giggling as a lizard pokes its head out of the hood of Chris’ jacket, and Chris cries “That’s where you went!” Josh forgets to miss his sisters in this moment. They are distracted by a knock on the door. A tall, athletic looking boy stands outside, jumping from one foot to the other. Ashley pulls back the partition to let him in. He offers a quick thank you but immediately turns his attention to Jess. “Are you watching football?”  
She removes one earphone. “Yes?”  
He beams. “Do you play?”  
“I’m the captain at my school.” She looks downcast. “Well, I was.”  
“You must be really good! I never got to be the Captain. I’m Matt.”  
“Jessica.”  
Josh tunes out at this point, instead deciding to talk to Chris and Ashley. Ashley seems a little full of herself, but ultimately sweet, and Chris is so clever and funny that Josh barely notices the train start to move away in the middle of a story about something that had happened in ‘climbing class’. It takes him a few minutes to figure out that Chris means Gym. As the eight of them watch the countryside speed by outside their window, Josh leans his head against the window and feels glad that he’s found his place already.

What must be a few hours later, he is shaken awake. The train is moving very slowly and his friends look excited. “Josh,” Chris whispers. “You need to get changed! We’re nearly there.”  
“Why are you whispering?”  
“Mike’s still asleep. He’s been wearing his uniform all day.”

Josh wriggled upwards, missing the warmth of his seat, and heads to the bathroom. When he returns, kitted out in his brand new uniform, Mike is awake and talking about his brother’s experience at Hogwarts. “Anyway, so my brother is all ‘There’s no way you can calm that dragon down, dude’ and Charlie’s all ‘WATCH ME’!”  
The compartment explodes into giggles. “What happened?” Ashley asks.  
“It worked! Apparently he’s studying dragons now. In Romania.”  
“Wow,” Sam breathes. “Imagine being that powerful.”  
“Nah,” Jess says. “I’d rather just play Quidditch.”  
“Quidditch?” Matt looks interested. “Is that like football?”  
Jess beams. “Boy, have I got stories for you. Come here!” She’s loading up a video on her phone. “This is Quidditch.”  
“How are you getting signal out here?” Chris joins in the conversation.  
“What’s the point in being a witch if you can’t get signal?”  
They all jerk forward as the train stops. “We’re here!” Mike grins. “There’s gonna be a boat ride now, in a lake with a squid in it!”  
“I don’t like boats.” Chris looks a bit sick. “I get seasick.”  
Josh squeezes his shoulder. “I’ve got your back, bro.” He takes the seasickness tablets out of his pocket. “Muggle remedies are good too.”  
“You’re amazing, thanks!” He says before blushing very pink. Em laughs. Mike pretends not to notice.  
Josh feels tingly. 

After a rather dramatic boat ride, (Chris was sick twice, Josh got to rub his back, and they nearly lost Mike to unpracticed parkour) the castle finally appeared in the distance. It was beautiful. There were lanterns and it was so bright. People stood on the shore, waving. Several were oddly see-through. He nudged Ashley. “What are those?”  
“Ghosts!” Ashley looks excited. “I’ve never seen any before!” She waves enthusiastically at a small, floating ghost who seems to be knocking over lanterns. He looks slightly surprised but waves back.

Before Josh really knows what’s happening, he is standing in a hall, waiting for his name to be called for his house. He’s already been briefed on each house, and is secretly hoping to be a Hufflepuff, though he doesn’t really mind that much.  
Being right at the end of the register, he watches all his friends get sorted first. Em and Mike go to Slytherin, which is no surprise to anyone. Ashley is put in Ravenclaw. Josh sees her triumphant grin as she takes her place. Jess and Sam sit at the Gryffindor table, and Matt goes to Hufflepuff. Chris is called up, and makes a nervous face at Josh as he walks to the stage. The hat is barely on his head for a second before he is declared a Hufflepuff.

Josh really wants to be a Hufflepuff.

Finally, his name is called, with only two other students after him. As the hat is placed on his head, he hears it speak and nearly jumps out of his skin. “Well!” it says. “There’s a good heart there. Kindness, loyalty, and dedication. So very thoughtful.”  
Does that mea-  
Uh-uh!” The hat teases. “There’s darkness in there as well. A cunning mind. You’re persuasive. And resourceful. You’d do well in Slytherin. But, I can’t overrule that heart. Yes, I think your place is quite clear.”  
“HUFFLEPUFF!” The hat shouts, and the Hufflepuff table bursts into cheers. He runs over to hug Matt and Chris, possibly holding onto Chris for a second longer before taking his seat in front of the most mouth-watering feast he’s ever seen.

When the time comes to sleep, Josh is less happy. Up in the Hufflepuff dorm, he’s pretty sure everyone else is asleep. Matt had passed out still in full uniform on top of his duvet. He had chatted to Chris for a bit, but Chris’ conversation has trailed off and he’s probably asleep too.

He misses Hannah and Beth.

His sisters are his best friends in the world. They’re only a year younger than him, so the age gap has never interfered. Hannah is so sweet and smart, always making friends and reading. Beth is the bravest person he knows. He remembers that morning, watching her charge around grabbing his stuff and stopping Hannah from crying. In the dark of the room, he muffles a sob.  
To his horror, a voice whispers, “Are you okay?”  
Blushing crimson in the darkness, he responds to Chris in a shaky voice. “Fine.”  
“No, you’re not. What’s wrong?”  
“Nothing!”  
“Josh.” Chris’ face is earnest, and he’s doing everything he can. It makes Josh want to share.  
“I miss my sisters,” he says in a small voice. “They’re sort of my best friends- don’t laugh, cause I-”  
“I wouldn’t laugh!” Chris interrupts, looking genuinely horrified. “Oh, sorry, I interrupted, carry on.”  
“It’s fine, stop freaking out. They’re a year younger than me, so they’ll come here next year. Beth is gonna be a Gryffindor for sure, and Hannah would be amazing in Ravenclaw.” As he speaks, he realises that when he talks about his sisters, he feels less and less distant. Chris has noticed this for sure. He leans back against the head of the bed, looks straight at Josh, and smiles.  
“Tell me more about them.”

At some point during the night, Josh drifts off. When he wakes up, sunlight is spilling through the windows and everything is glowing. It’s the blissful few minutes when everyone has woken up, but no one is quite awake yet. They share company without speaking, but the small smiles on everyone’s face make the whole room feel friendly. Chris has moved back to his own bed, and is sitting on the edge. His feet don’t touch the floor and he’s kicking his legs back and forth, leafing through A History of Magic. Each of them has a copy, and based on what he knows about his new friends so far, only Chris and Ashley will finish it. Sam and Emily will skim through it, Matt will give up after a chapter, Jess will look up a summary on her phone, and Mike will have lost his by now. Josh doesn’t quite know what he’ll do with his copy. Maybe he’ll send it home for Hannah, who desperately wants to come to Hogwarts.

Josh is slightly disappointed that Chris had moved back to his own bed. It was fair enough, he supposes. Chris had come to comfort him, and when he fell asleep, why wouldn’t he go back to his own bed? This is silly, he says to himself. Chris is your friend.

He is jerked out of this reverie by Matt grabbing his shoulder as he crosses the room. “Alright, Josh?” He is very possibly the cheeriest person Josh has ever met. It’s endearing, but slightly suffocating this early in the morning. “We have Charms first, upstairs! It’s kinda unfair that we’re in the basement, we have SO many stairs to go up.” As Matt talks, Chris joins them silently, offering a small smile. Matt claps him on the back, and Josh thinks he might fall over. “Charms is with the Slytherins, so we can see Mike and Em.”  
“I don’t know any spells at all.” Chris says miserably. “I bet I’ll be rubbish.”  
“Right there with you,” Matt replies, though he doesn’t seem bothered at all. “None of us are gonna be experts. Except maybe Ashley, she’s probably learnt the whole course by now.”

If Ashley has learnt the whole course, then Josh sends a silent prayer for her help. It’s somewhat comforting that most of the feathers they’ve been asked to levitate are not co-operating. The key is determination, their teacher tells them.

(He later adds, “but not too much”, as Mike’s feather flies across the room at alarming speed along with his wand.)

Josh is having no luck whatsoever, and is just starting to consider blowing on it in order to keep up appearances, when Emily turns around. She’d been at the desk in front of him, her feather was floating just above her head. “Josh.” Her voice is extremely serious, as if she’s about to inform him that he’s been expelled. “You need to relax.”  
“I’m doing the best I can!” He means to defend himself, but it comes out slightly hysterical.  
“I know. Stop gripping your wand so hard, you’ll get hand cramps. And say it more firmly!” Then she turns around again as if nothing had happened. Josh takes her advice, trying the spell again. The feather floats a little over the desk. It’s not as high as Emily’s, or as fast as Mike’s, but it’s floating, which is enough for him. Chris has made his float a little bit higher than Josh. Matt’s is lower, but slowly rotating in circles, which stumps their professor completely. Mike is beaming with pride at his, which is suspended by his ear. Emily shoots him a smile, and he nods a thank you at her.

The rest of the day flies by, and over dinner, plans are made for the group to meet up in the owlery. Being in different houses is kind of rubbish, Josh thinks. He’s glad to have Chris and Matt, but it’s Sam who gives the best advice, and Mike who always makes him laugh. Emily and Ashley make class less scary with their advice, and Jess’ laugh fills rooms with sunshine. 

They could certainly do with some sunshine in the owlery. It’s absolutely freezing, and the Autumn wind blows leaves through the open windows. It must be lovely up there in Summer, but at this point, Josh is wrapped in a shirt, his winter robes, and a massive coat, and still feeling the cold. “At least no one else will come up here when we’re hanging out!” Matt says brightly. Josh wonders if Matt has ever felt a negative emotion in his life as he sits down next to Chris at the windowsill. It’s too dark for there to be much of a view, but both of them stare out at the sky anyway, as Matt scopes out the room behind them. The silence isn’t uncomfortable, at least to Josh. They are perfectly happy to just sit and stare out.

The spell is broken when Ashley arrives, blustering in with excited words and a bright grin under her pink beanie. “This place is amazing!” she declares, letting Matt pull her into a hug. “I knew some of the spells already, but the tricks they tell you aren’t in the books, and in History of Magic, our professor had actually lived through some of the events, so he had all these extra facts and a personal viewpoint. I’m going to love it here, I can feel it.”  
Josh laughs. “Hey, Ash,” he says. “Good to see you!”  
“Nice day?” Chris turns around from his spot and smiles at Ashley.  
“I think that’s obvious!” Matt calls, and they laugh.  
“Hey, what’s with the giggling?” Sam appears in the doorway, Jess a few moments behind her. “We miss something?”  
“Just Ashley getting way too excited for this time of night.”  
“Chris, it’s not that late!” Ashley looks indignant, arms crossed over her chest.  
“We’re still gonna have to sneak back to bed. Curfew is too early for us to actually talk.”  
Ashley grins at that. “I’ve never broken the rules before! It’s kind of exciting!”  
Chris offers her a smile, and she smiles back at him. Something pangs in Josh’s chest, and he leans his head against the wall. It’s stupid, he knows it is, but he doesn’t want Chris to be closer friends with Ashley than him. He already considers Chris his best friend (apart from his sisters) and whilst he loves the others dearly, the thought of Chris not valuing him in the same way makes him feel all anxious and sad.  
“Okay, so,” Jess’ voice makes him look up. “Do any of you know why first years can’t tryout for the Quidditch teams? Because I’m good, not to boast or anything, and I am dying to be the Gryffindor Seeker.”  
“No way you’re getting that position. They just don’t let the first years try out. Too dangerous.” Sam explains. “There’s always next year, and you’ll get in for sure.”  
Before Jess can open her mouth to complain, Mike and Em dart in. “Sorry we’re late.” Em takes a seat next to Josh. “Mike can’t be subtle to save his life. We nearly got caught like three times.” Mike shrugs apologetically. “Anyway, Emily’s insults aside, does everyone agree that this place is great?” There are murmurs of agreement from everyone. Josh can’t wait for his sisters to start school here, they’re going to love it.

As they chat about their day, Josh learns that Jess loves Flying and Transfiguration. Ashley’s favourite subject is History of Magic (Emily can’t quite believe this fact, and the situation nearly gets quite tense) , Em and Mike like Charms, Chris likes Potions, and Matt can barely wait until their Astronomy lesson on Friday. Josh himself likes Herbology. It’s nice to be able to care for the plants and watch them flourish. His parents always kept an impressive garden behind their house, and Josh would go and sit there when he needed to calm down or relax. The plants were completely different, but it was a comfort to sit among them.

They talk until late at night. Sam tells them how she wants to be a Healer for animals more than anything. “My father is a Muggle vet,” she says, her eyes wide with enthusiasm. “I always wanted to be one too, but now magic is an option.” Josh chimes in that he is especially interested in healing plants, and Sam’s smile makes him miss Hannah a little less. She reminds him of Beth as well, but her smile is all Hannah.

Jess, who has a Muggle mother and a wizard father, and has been playing Quidditch practically since she could walk, surprises no one when she tells them she wants to play for the Holyhead Harpies when she’s older. Mike tells her that he supports that team, and Josh doesn’t miss the strange look that flashes across her face briefly before she carries on.

Sam and Jess are the only two who know exactly what they want. Mike likes the idea of being an Auror, which Josh can already imagine. When they ask him what he wants to do, he just shrugs, saying he’s only been at Hogwarts for a day, and he’s eleven. He’ll figure it out later.

After that first day, time suddenly seems to move a lot quicker. Every day, he goes to his lessons with Chris, Matt, and whichever other house they share a class with. He’s top of the class in Herbology within a few months, and even if most people think it’s a useless subject to excel in, his Professor tells him he could teach the class one day if he works hard, and his talent could take him places.

They still meet in the Owlery every night. It is, as Josh had predicted, nicer in the Summer, and they sit and watch the sunsets together on the warmest evenings. Josh goes home at the holidays and regales his sisters with the stories of his year, from meeting his friends at the station to the time they all got joint detention for trying to swim in the Great Lake one evening.

(His mother frowns at that. He doesn’t mind.)

However nice it was to go home and see his family, he misses Hogwarts terribly and writes letters everyday. Sam had been sending him letters by Muggle post (she blatantly refused to use owls, insisting that it was too cruel) and he replies in this way too. He quickly learns to alternate who he writes to, realising that it takes up far too much of his day to send seven letters. Jess rarely replies, but it’s not personal, she assures him. She just has a lot to do. Mike doesn’t like writing much and his letters are always short accounts of what he did that day. The longest letters are always from Chris, and these are always the letters that make him smile the most.

Term starts again and ends almost as quickly. On the last night before they go home, they all sit in the Owlery, lounging in the pools of light that stream through the window. They don’t need to tell each other anything about themselves anymore, they all know it all. It’s a weird night, Josh thinks. Ashley gets tearful every time anyone mentions going home, and Mike is acting just a little too cheerful for it to be entirely real.

When they sneak back into the Hufflepuff dormitories late that night (or early in the morning, Ashley would argue) Josh sits on his bed, feet resting on his packed suitcase. Matt gets straight into bed, falling asleep almost instantly. Chris busies himself with checking he’s packed everything. He doesn’t speak to Josh as he does this, and his face is turned away, but his shoulders are shaking and his hands grip the bag a little too tightly. Neither of them say anything to each other, but when Chris comes to lie next to him in his bed, Josh doesn’t mind.

He’s gone again in the morning. Josh tries not to mind.

Back at King’s Cross Station, he spins Hannah and Beth around and hugs his parents, excited to spend a whole summer with them again. It doesn’t stop his eyes from stinging when Mike and Sam wave goodbye across the station as their parents lead them away, or when Matt and Ashley give him hugs, and Jess slips a sweet into his hand. Emily had left the train carriage and disappeared too quickly for Josh to say anything. He suspected she didn’t want anyone to see her cry. 

Josh tries his best, but can’t find Chris anywhere. They’d been separated in the crowds coming off the train. It’s only later, squashed in the car between Hannah and Beth that he finds the Helga Hufflepuff chocolate frog card tucked into the side of his rucksack. He smiles as the car pulls away from the station.

Next year is going to be epic.

**Author's Note:**

> this is either going to be seven or eight chapters long, depending on whether i write an epilogue (and also if i have time to write). let me know how it's going!   
> i'm trianglesandwings on tumblr- follow me there for reblogged climbing class content that i could never hope to reproduce!  
> title is from always gold by radical face.


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